Body-mapping and the Human Spirograph: Performance drawing in Thirdspace

In performance drawing, the dancing body performs within particular kinds of spaces, leaving physical trace marks behind on surfaces such as plastic sheeting or paper. In this article I analyse Tony Orrico’s performance of 8 Circles (2010) to question the relationship between lived body and graphite mark. I draw on Soja’s theory of Thirdspace (1996) to rethink performance drawing as a bridge between different types of knowledge. This understanding of performance drawing reveals liminal spaces of heightened sensory and motor awareness where body, graphite and movement plane combine to become reflections on a body’s energetic flows, manifest as a body-map of somatic practice.